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Authorities say a small plane has crashed less than a mile from the runway of a Texas Hill Country airport, killing a man and wife aboard. The plane departed from Fort Worth's Spinks Airport. (Published Thursday, May 9, 2013)

Updated at 9:05 AM CDT on Friday, May 10, 2013

Two people were killed Thursday when a Cessna 182 out of Spinks Airport in Fort Worth crashed near Fredericksburg, officials say.

Justice of the Peace Louis Rech said both of those aboard, a man and a woman, were killed.

2 Dead in Plane Crash in Hill Country

Authorities say a small plane has crashed less than a mile from the runway of a Texas Hill Country airport, killing both people aboard. The plane departed from Fort Worth's Spinks Airport.
(Published Thursday, May 9, 2013)

The Texas Department of Public Safety identified the couple as Donald Frosch, 43, and his wife Jeannie Frosch, 41, from Mansfield.

KXAN in Austin reports the plane crashed into a pasture near the 1200 block of Hollmig Lane, just two miles northeast of Gillespie County Airport while the pilot was attempting to land.

According to Lynn Lunsford with the Federal Aviation Administration, the single-engine Cessna 172 crashed at about 1:30 p.m.

The couple leaves behind an 8-year-old daughter.

Jeanne Frosch's mother, Janice Streight, was at the Frosch family home in Mansfield Thursday night. She told NBC 5 she was already staying with her granddaughter because the girl's parents had rented the plane that crashed and were planning a long Mother's Day weekend in Luckenbach.

The Frosch's were active members in their church, St. John Lutheran, according to Pastor Bill Dasch.

"I think if you were to think about a couple, they were like 'Ozzie and Harriet.' They were that kind of couple.," Pastor Dasch said. "Jeanne was teaching in our Sunday school department. Don played on our softball team. He was a greeter, his wife was a greeter as well. They were in church almost every week."

Pastor Dasch said Donald Frosch would often talk about being a pilot, and had offered to fly Dasch's son to the St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee a few years ago when the boy was battling cancer.

Investigators with the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the crash.